"I (Jesus) am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
John 10:11

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Texans in the West Bank #2

We began the day with breakfast and prayer for the families we would visit today. Our prayer was for the H S to go before us and prepare the hearts of the people.

We traveled to a village which is about 8km from the town we are staying in, but we had to travel about 25km to get there due to road access around the mountains.

We divided into two teams to be able to visit more families. Our team visited with 3 families. Each visit was to a family including several generations... a mother, daughters and/or daughters-in-law and many grandchildren. Each family was obviously very poor but insisted on serving us coffee and tea, which was very good. There was only one man present in one family, none in the others. The women said the men were away looking for work.

The second family, where the uncle was present, was grinding wheat to make flat bread as we arrived. After the uncle finished grinding, he came in to be with us while the daughter prepared the bread. She used an outside oven consisting of hot charcoal under stones. The dough was flattened, like tortillas, and placed on the hot stones to bake. We were given two flat breads as we were leaving. It was delicious.

Each family had heavy burdens that they shared with us of poverty, lack of work, health problems and family members separated from them because borders have changed. They can no longer cross borders to visit family.

Our purpose was to show them love through our visit and encouragement and small gifts for their children. My prayer is that each family will remember our visit each time they eat the food.